Does Urbanization Affect Rural Poverty? Evidence from Indian Districts

Calì ; , Massimiliano ; Menon, Carlo

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ACCESS TO MARKETS;    ADULT POPULATION;    AGRICULTURAL EMPLOYMENT;    AGRICULTURAL LABORERS;    AGRICULTURAL LAND;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-6338
RP-ID  :  WPS6338

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Although a high rate of urbanization anda high incidence of rural poverty are two distinct featuresof many developing countries, there is little knowledge ofthe effects of the former on the latter. Using a largesample of Indian districts from the 1983-1999 period, theauthors find that urbanization has a substantial andsystematic poverty-reducing effect in the surrounding ruralareas. The results obtained through an instrumental variableestimation suggest that this effect is causal in nature andis largely attributable to the positive spillovers ofurbanization on the rural economy rather than to themovement of the rural poor to urban areas. This ruralpoverty-reducing effect of urbanization is primarilyexplained by increased demand for local agriculturalproducts and, to a lesser extent, by urban-ruralremittances, the rural land/population ratio, and ruralnonfarm employment.